Shenali D Waduge

It is no coincidence that there is a sequence to the barrage of reports and media releases against Sri Lanka. It is no coincidence that they come from the same players that strove for Kosovo independence in 2008 and now using same methods to separate Sri Lanka. The sequence lies in the realization that they are all aimed to meet an already established goal. If that is not the case we have to wonder if there is a syndicate involved in pushing for refugee claims on account of the multiple avenues for asylum seekers willing to pay anything and do anything to gain entry to greener pastures. Therefore we have to wonder what the objective of Yasmin Sooka’s reports are about.

Here’s why the credibility of Yasmin Sooka is being questioned

• From a supposed to be independent member of Ban Ki Moons Advisory Panel in 2010 (report released in March 2011) Yasmin Sooka has become associated with a globally funded campaign against Sri Lanka. This removed her from being ‘unbiased’ or ‘independent’.
• In working as an employee of an EU funded entity, Yasmin Sooka is bound by employee-employer clauses again questioning her ‘unbias’ and ‘independence’. Yasmin Sooka is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa which was set up by the European Union in 1996 and funded by the European Union (and by Belgium). Whether she likes it or not she has to abide by what her paymasters tell her. The Foundation receives funding from Ireland, CARE, UN bodies and American Foundation. Thus, she cannot work against any of them which automatically restricts her work. Moreover EU voted against Sri Lanka en bloc at the UNRHC Resolutions. http://www.interventionism.info/en/CSI-Position-Paper-on-the-Sooka-report
• Questioning her credibility is her joining Bishop Joseph Rayappu, TNA leader R Sambathan, Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran and 35 others with Archbishop Desmond Tutu (who wrote the Foreward of the 2014 Torture report) to write to the UNHRC in March 2014 appealing to set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes against Sri Lanka. Yasmin Sooka was the 2^nd signatory in this joint petition organized by the Sri Lanka campaign for Peace & Justice in which Yasmin Sooka is a member of the Advisory Council http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/28557 This organization includes a bevy of members all known for their anti-Sri Lanka rants, would Yasmin Sooka function any different? Her colleagues in this Council include:

1. Norwegian film maker Beate Arnestad – ‘My daughter the terrorist’
2. Lakhdar Brahimi – also a member of The Elders” & the Global Leadership Forum; Governing Board, SIPRI; Board of Trustees, International Crisis Group and Global Humanitarian Forum.
3. Basil Fernando – Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC).
4. Bruce Haigh – former Australian diplomat, the patron of Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in which his colleagues are proved supporters of the LTTE (Brahmi Jegan, Dr. Sam Pari) Dr. Sam Pari is designated by the GOSL as a terrorist supporter under UNSC Resolution 1373
5. Bianca Jagger – a member of the Executive Director’s Leadership Council for Amnesty International USA, the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch America. Amnesty International accepted $50,000 from Canadian Tamil Congress also designated as a LTTE front by the GOSL under UNSC Resolution 1373
6. Tissainayagam – now living in the US

• When she declares we released the report in time before the Geneva Resolutions because we wanted to influence the Geneva Resolution” dose that not make her report ‘An unfinished war: Torture and Sexual violence in Sri Lanka 2009-20014” politically motivated? And is it wrong that the sequel to this report has now come out just before the September Geneva sessions?
• Is it also wrong for us to point out that her report is funded by the British Foreign Office through the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales
• It is also wrong for us to ask why Yasmin Sooka is purposely mixing civilians with LTTE terrorists as her selected cases in the 2014 report were mostly LTTE cadres who had fled Sri Lanka and were seeking asylum.
• When she is appealing and recommending to the UNSG’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Special Rapporteur on Torture to initiate a special inquiry into rape and sexual violence is it possible that she may be funded by these asylum seekers to validate their asylum claims through bogusly funded reports?
• The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace & Justice released a report Crimes against Humanity in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province’ in March 2014 of which the foreward by the Centre for Justice & Accountability was endorsed by Yasmin Sooka herself! Isnt that strange as she was a Advisory Council member of the Campaign for Peace & Justice! http://cja.org/downloads/Crimes%20Against%20Humanity%20in%20Sri%20Lanka_s%20Northern%20Province.pdf
• Is it also wrong to question Yasmin Sooka when she becomes guest speaker at the 2013 Global Tamil Forum-GTF (a UNSC 1373 resolution banned LTTE terrorist front). GTF organizers introduced her as ‘comrade’. She was joined by TNA leader Sambanthan and TNA MP Sumanthiran.
• What is unusually amazing is that GTF conference were guests who have been used as ‘independent’ analysts. GTF conference invitees were Prof. William Schabas (he appeared on the Channel 4 video) Dr. Elvira Dominguez Redondo an expert of R2P, Dr. Manivannan Associate Professor and Sri Lanka specialist (Univ of Madras), Yolanda Foster of Amnesty International. Why would they appear as invitees to events organized by designated LTTE fronts?
• Yasmin Sooka’s credibility is further questioned with her vociferous campaign to boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka in 2013 and praising Canada for saying it was boycotting going.
• Would an unbiased person write an article to the Mail & Guardian Sri Lanka: Living in fear of the white vans” (31 March 2014) http://mg.co.za/article/2014-03-31-sri-lanka-living-in-fear-of-the-white-vans. She writes All the indications are that the Sri Lankan government now has sophisticated facial recognition software for identifying those of interest. They also have an extensive database now of Tamils from the former conflict areas to which they can match photos. Every survivor of the war was photographed, their personal details recorded in the giant internment camp in 2009. We now know that it’s standard operating procedure for the security forces to photograph and fingerprint all those they abduct illegally in white vans”. This includes often photographing their bodies for scars from the war or previous torture sessions.” (how much funding did it cost to write this!)
• Previously the New York Times published an article in 2012 co-authored by the 3 UNSG Panel Members  MARZUKI DARUSMAN, STEVEN RATNER and YASMIN SOOKA titled ‘Revisiting Sri Lanka’s Bloody War” immediately after the 3 submitted their report to the UNSG. They must think that we are illiterate to ignore how they have manipulated words. The Darusman report of 2011 spoke of ‘credible ALLEGATIONS’. Their article to the New York Times in which they say ‘our report’ they claim to have ‘credible EVIDENCE’. . http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/opinion/revisiting-sri-lankas-bloody-war.html?_r=0
• Let us also remind that the UNSG Panel in their report say ‘as many as 40,000 may have died’, why would she next say 70,000 died during the last phase and that there are 147,000 unaccounted for? Surely the dead cant increase after the conflict is over and to satisfy the sale or distribution of books/reports? Let us also remind all that the UNHRC head Navi Pillay herself quoted 2800 deaths by 13 March 2009 since January 2009, how could the figure have shot up to 40,000, 70,000 or even 147,000 in just 36 days when close to 300,000 Tamils were rescued by 15^th May 2009?

Even if we leave aside all above when Yasmin Sooka says Last but definitely not least, we thank our funders – the Sigrid Rausing Trust and the Open Society Foundation” we have every right to raise eyebrows on the intent of the report.

George Soros & Open Society Foundation: Soros runs a global empire of NGOs promoting human rights” freedom” democracy” & transparency” to cover institutional crimes in collaboration with neo-conservatives of the US State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy & subsidiaries. Congress annually funds $100 for NED to promote ‘democracy’ in developing nations while Soros funds Amnesty International & Human Rights Watch.

Its time we realize that these NGOs are modern day imperial administrators funded to undermine national governments and replace them with a homogeneous ‘civil society’ agreeable to prostitute themselves to be run by Wall Street & London.

George Soros who has funded Yasmin Sooka’s report also supported the independence of Kosovo enabling the US/NATO to create a protectorate that recently attacked Macedonia.

Proof of Soros’s involvement in regime change through his network of Foundations is given in the 2011 article in the New York Times (US Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings”. The article confirms that training & financing for the Youth Movement in Egypt, the youth leader in Yemen were given by the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House based in Washington. It isn’t odd that USAID is funding Sri Lanka youth!  It turns out that the new Egyptian Constitution has already been drafted not by the Egyptians but by ‘civil society’ funded by George Soros Open Society! NED funds Transparency Sri Lanka as well as National Peace Council. NDI, USAID, funds the Centre for Policy Alternatives. http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/investigate-ngo-heads.

Opposition in Myanmar are funded through Aung San Suu Kyi (earmarked to overthrow & replace the government of Myanmar) via NED, Soros. A report titled ‘Failing the People of Burma’ along the lines of reports generated about Sri Lanka shows the manner in which ‘pro-democracy’ is being built up. Thaksin Shinawatra is another Wall Street Thai proxy. NED subsidiary, Freedom House is chaired by neo-conservative Kenneth Adelman who was Shinawatra’s lobbyist and is a trustee on Soros-funded International Crisis Group. Soros also attempted to overthrow the Russian Government funding the theme ‘rigged’ elections and the accusers were all funded by Soros and the NED using a Soros funded ‘independent’ poll monitor (Golos). So no one should think we are paranoid when we question these NGOs/independent civil society/polls groups/ research agencies because all of them find connection to the Western regime change/neo-con agenda.

Similarly the other party to fund Yasmin Sooka’s report is Sigrid Rausing Trust. Sigrid is the grand daughter of Tetra Pak founder Ruben Rausing. Sigrid is owner of the Granta publishing house and one of Britain’s richest women. She has been accused of storing her fortune ($1.7million) in a secret HSBC Swiss Bank account to avoid paying UK taxes! Her brother was arrested on suspicion of drugs in 2012 and police also discovered the decomposing body of his wife, Eva. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/10820277/Sigrid-Rausing-on-money-addiction-and-collective-farming.html

What is also interesting about the possibility of asylum seekers funding the Sooka report is when Soros funds Evangelicals to lobby for immigration laws planning to bribe up to 13.8 million legal immigrants to become citizens before the 2016 election. it would cost 680 million dollars to naturalize 1 million new voters via the National Immigration Forum funded by Soros.

What we need to identify from above is that these reports almost always end up linked to entities that are funded to advance imperial agendas and these same entities are used having linked up with local ‘civil society experts’ and are heavily funded through every mode of communication to undermine governments they feel are impediments to their objectives.

The Sooka report is no different. When conflict of interests glares in the face and when that is never highlighted by the very parties claiming to be ‘unbiased’ we should immediately call the bluff.

The next instalment will deal with allegations in the Sooka report.

Shenali D Waduge

https://www.barhumanrights.org.uk/unfinished-war-torture-and-sexual-violence-sri-lanka-2009-2014